Congress members want the Justice Department to investigate whether the CIA acted illegally in destroying the video of terrorism suspects' interrogations.

Key members of Congress on Friday called for multiple investigations into the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes, charging the agency may have eliminated evidence of torture, obstructed justice or engaged in an illegal coverup.

The CIA's disclosure that it had destroyed tapes showing harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects rekindled the emotional controversy surrounding U.S. practices and threatened to reopen the tense confrontation between Congress and the Bush administration that began more than three years ago.

Democratic leaders demanded Friday that Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey order a full Justice Department probe into whether the CIA had acted illegally in destroying the tapes, which recorded interrogations of two terrorism suspects.

"We haven't seen anything like this since the 18 1/2 -minute gap in the tapes of President Richard Nixon," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in a blistering speech on the Senate floor. A Justice Department spokesman said the congressional requests for an investigation were under review.

At the same time, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said the panel already had opened its own probe of the matter and challenged a CIA assertion that key lawmakers had been briefed on the decision to dispose of the recordings.

"I was not told of the CIA's decision to destroy the tapes, and I was not aware of their destruction until yesterday's press reports," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) said in a statement. He added that "the CIA's description of notifying Congress is inconsistent with our records."

The handling of the tapes raised questions on other fronts.

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden had said the tapes were "not relevant to any internal, legislative or judicial inquiries." But critics said the tapes could have been pertinent to congressional inquiries, to the Sept. 11 commission and in the criminal trials of two terrorism suspects.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said President Bush had no recollection of having been aware of the tapes or their destruction before he was informed about the issue by Hayden on Thursday.

However, former White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers, a close friend of the president, knew about the CIA's destruction of the tapes and had urged that they be preserved, ABC News reported Friday, citing unidentified sources. White House officials refused to comment on the report.

Perino said the White House counsel's office was working with the CIA to gather information on the handling of the tapes. She said the White House would support Mukasey if he decided to investigate the matter.

When asked whether there was concern that laws had been broken, Perino said, "I'll decline to comment."

At the time the tapes were destroyed, Porter J. Goss was director of the CIA. He did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

In a statement to agency employees Thursday, Hayden said the CIA had done nothing illegal. He said the agency began videotaping interrogations in 2002 as part of "an internal check on the program in its early stages" and discontinued the practice later that year.

Many of Hayden's assertions were challenged by lawmakers, lawyers and advocacy groups that have campaigned against the CIA's secret detention program.

Hayden said that leaders of congressional oversight committees had been informed of the existence of the videos "years ago," and subsequently were told of the agency's plans to destroy them.

But Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) -- who was the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee at the time the videotapes were destroyed -- said the panel "was never informed."

Harman acknowledged receiving a classified briefing in 2003 that disclosed the existence of the tapes. She said that prompted her to send a letter to the CIA general counsel's office cautioning "against destruction of any videotapes."

Kennedy assailed Hayden's statements that the CIA had destroyed the tapes to protect agency officials involved in interrogations from being identified if the tapes leaked, exposing them to retaliation.